Mechanical drier.



No. e34,|99. Patented om. s, |899.

F. n. cumul-zn.

MECHANICAL DBIER.

(Applicaeian med mr. 25, 159e.)

4 Sheets-Sheet l.

(No Model.)

No. 634,|99.` Patented Oct. 3'; |899.

F. D. CUMMER.

MECHANICAL DRIER.

(Application led Mar. 25, 189B.)

4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

ImvEn-rm? Nn. 634,199. Patented oct. 3, |999.

F. n. cummzn.

MECHANICAL DRIER.

(Applicatinn led Hm'. 26, 1898.) (un Modes.) 4 Silsie-sneer 3,

lll

Ica

TN VEN-r as;

AT1-EET No. 634,I99. Patented 001:. 3, |899.

F. D. CUMMER.

MECHANICAL DBIER.

` (Appueipn mea nu. 25, 189s.) illu Model.) 4 Shoots-Sheet 4.

Nrrnn STATES FRANKLIN DAVID CIIMMER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO', \VILLIAM IM. C-UMMER,

AhlllNIS'llL-VFOR OF SAID FRANKLIN DATID CUMME-R, DECEASEI), AS- SIHNOR 'l`() 'lllll F. l).- CUMMER d'- SON COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

MECHANICAL DRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 634,199, dated October 3, 1899.

i Application fina March 25, 189s. Seria1N'o.675,1zs. IN@ man 1'!) fl/l wiz-0m, it may concern:

Bc it known that I, FRANKLIN DAVID CUM- Amn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cleveland, in the county ofOnyallega and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanical Driers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanical driers;

1o and the object of the invention is to supply a machine in which a great variety of materials carrying more or less moisture may be dried ou a larger scale-such materials, for example, as city garbage, liquid cement slurry, floated or washed clays, ochers, umbers,

and the like,in which much the larger percentage ot the material may be in a liquid state and the solids a comparatively small per cent.

2o In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a plain elevation of my improved drying apparatus. Fig. :2 is a front elevation thereof, looking inward from the left of Fig. 1. Fig. l is a plan vie1 of the apparatus seen in Figs.

z5 l and 2. Fig. i, Sheet t?, is an elevation of the screen and the distributing passages or channels therefrom. Fig. 5 is a plan view, and Fig. G isa longitudinal sectional elevation, of the granulating or distributing mech- 3o anism shown in Fig. 1 beneath the screen.

'lhc purpose and plan of the machine shown in the several views are to pass the material through the drying-cylinder, and thus dry the same more or less completely, and then passing this dried and partially-dried material from the cylinder through a screen or separator of some suitable kind to sift out the dry portions thereof, and after subjecting the insuiiciently-dried portion of the material to 4o the operations of a granulator or reducer to break it up into small particles when necessary and carry the same along to be passed again through the drying-cylinder, but with the raw material, whatever it may be.

4 5 Having reference new to the drawings, the drying-cylinder A -is shown in dotted lines, and may be any one of my improved cylinders adapted to do the work, and, as is well known, in these cylinders the dried material is fed thereto through the breeching B at the 5o front, which also forms an exit for the products of combustion or drying agent or gases and vapor, and the dried' orv partially-dried material is discharged from the rear end of tliifel cylinder. It is also well known as to my 5 5 cylinders that the drying agent niay enter both through the side and rear end of the eylinder or wholly through the rear end or side, as may ,be found best, and that the material travels rearward and the drying agent for- 6o ward through the cylinder.

New I have found that in the handling of a number of different materials there are reasons why it is not desirable or indeed practicable to so completely dry all the material in a single passage through the machine as to make it what may be termed commercially dry. Take, for example, city garbage. I have found by experience that to dry this material by sending it once 7o alone through the drier I not only incur very great danger from explosions, but that a very oifensive dust is u navoidably carried with the products of combustion out into the atmosphere, as well as a considerable loss sustained in the more volatile fertilizing properties, which likewise are carried ed into the air. Other reasons exist in connection with other materials for not drying to a finish in the first passage through the machine, and 8o in all these materials there is the further consideration of economy, by which I am enabled to utilize the full volume of heat from the furnace without Waste or loss to do the greatest amount of drying that can be done with a given quantity of heat furnished. These and other considerations have rendered nec-v essary thepresent invention to complete my drying system. I havel therefore provided means for screening or sifting the product as 9o it comes from the machine, consisting in this instance of the rotary screen C, to which the material is carried by the drag-conveyer D, and the discharge-spout d at the rear end of the machine delivering the material to the said 9 5 conveyor. From this conveyor the material is discharged into the revolving screen C through spout 'd'. The screen C is so constructed and arranged that it receives the materia'l at one end and discharges itat the other. Beneath the screen is a hopper C', from which lead three several spouts c, c', and c2, and at the discharge end of the screen there is a discharfe-spout c3v to receive the material which does not sift through and which with the spout c empties directly into the upper granulator-section having casin g G. The spout c is supposed to receive the bulk of the dried material sifted through screen C into hopper C', whence it is discharged into the conveyer F and carried away to any de-4 sired point as finished material. The spout c2, Figs.'1 and 2, delivers a small percentage of the material, more or less, to the lower section of the granulator, Fig. 6, where the operation is as hereinafter described.

II represents an elevator for the liquid material or material in a fluid or very moist state, and whereby the receiving-tanks K and K' are kept supplied. There are two drying-cylinders shown in plan side by side and a tank for each, so that a .single elevator serves for both tanks, and the Worm L carries the material over to tank K', or it may ow over by gravity. Delivery-spout 7c supplies the material to the granulator.

Now referring especially to Figs. 5 and 6 we have what I choose to term a granulator and which when analyzed -is a combined mixer, disintegrator, and duster-that is, the upper section G of the granulator is used to mix the materials, the lower section has a.

series of cutting-blades to cut upinto bits the lumps of material coming to it, and the spiral blade following in this lower section turns the material around and coats the small lumps orbits with the dust that is fed iny through spout c2. More or less dry material comes through this spout c2 as lmay be needed for dusting the lumps, and however refractory the material delivered from screen C it will be prepared by the granulator for further handling in the drying-cylinder. In some cases a considerable volume of dry material through spout c2 will be needed and in others not so much, the condition of the mat rial as well as other considerations being i olved to determine how much is needed from time to time. The same is true in the case of spout c, to which the flow of material is governed by valve c4. Conditions of fire and quantity and 'condition of the raw material have especially to do with the feed through this spout.` The feed of raw material through channel 7c likewise depends on certain conditions, especially that of the Iire.1 The operator of the machinecannot be expected to govern the firing, which may vary considerably during a run; but whatever the fire, whether high or low, the operator can make the most of the re he has and get uniformityin the product by adapting the quantity of material through both the raw and the partly dry and dry channels to the state of the lire. With a high heat the supply of raw material would be increased and the return stream would be governed to pnt this greater flow of raw intothe .right condition for the drier, and so on. But notwithstanding the fact that varying amounts of dry material are diverted with the partially dry 'through the cylinder the days output of dry product at last will he equal .proportionately to the quantity of wet that has been carried throughthe machine. A

In the casing or pan G of the granulator are two `parallel revolving shafts G and G2, each with blades g, which are generally caused to revolve so that the upper ends of the blades will rotate toward each other. These shafts are driven from the main shaft- M, which passes through the lower grannlator-casing G4 andcarries blades m, similar to blades g, and alsov a spiral conveyer-blade 'm' in its outer end. Upon the shaft M is a pinion m2, meshing with gear g on the shaft G2, and by the side of this gear is a pinion g2,vwhichmeshes with a corresponding pinion g3 on the shaft G', so that both shafts G' and G2 are rotated at the saine rate of speed, but in different directions, as before indicated.

In the foregoing construction the material is delivered intwo streams simultaneously to the granulator, the wet throughthe spout or pipe ls from the tank K and lthe partlydried from the hopper C', with a-quantity, more or less, as may be needed, of the dry through spout c. Anysuitable valve maybe employed to regulate the iiow of the Wet through the pipe k; but the stream flowing through thespout c3 from the screen is contin nous and unregulated, except as it may be regulated by the meshes of the screen.

From the granulator the material is delivered to the drying-cylinder by carrier P and discharged into the'breeching B. However,

, in a few instances*suc h as Waste carbonate of lime from pulp, paper, and scrapwork-the wet material may bepassed directly into the cylinder without first being mixed with the dry. In such cases the partly-dried material alone passes through the granulator and is treated therein substantially as hereinbefore descri ed.

From the granulator, as above described, the mixed and dusted material is delivered into the drying-cylinder, where it is dried without making any further trouble and without the slightest disposition to adhere to the walls or any part of the machine. Previous to this invention in our efforts to deal with many materials We were unsuccessful, for the reason that the wet material, owing to its sticky nature, would in a short time so ll up the drying-machine that it would be rendered useless. f

Sometimes it is desirable to have ascreen which will make three or more separations, so that each grade of the coarser material as itis returned to thedrier shall pass through separate disintegrators, and this nodiiication is within the scope of the present invention. The finest will be the dry or finished material. 'ihe next finest may be dry enough for I a finished product, so as to be easily pulverized or considerably more moist than the iinest, as may bey desired, and so on, the pereentage of mois/ture increasing as .the sepa- .rated'material increases in size of bits or lumps.

ln this way the process can be so conducted that the second grade as to size, (next above the linest,) as stated before', may be dry enough to be easily pulverized, and all or practically all of the line pulverizing would preferably be done when the material was in the second condition, as above described, or the process can be so conducted that the material in the second condition will have dry and moist material mixed, as previously described, as when we want the presence and influence of the moist material.

It is obvious that b v separating the material by a screen or by other like means as it comes from the drier into two or more grades as to fineness and by returning to the drier through separate pulverizers a gradual reduction and gradual drying process will be established and that the period of the drying process may be prolonged almost indefinitely, al-

though the period of time occupied by the material in passing through the drying-machine at any one time may be quite short. \Vith manymatericls this gradual reduction and gradual drying process may be 4effected quite satisfactorily by separating the dried and partiall y-dried material as it comes from the drier into two grades as to size and passing the coarser through a disintegrator on its Way to the drier and using a disintegrator of such construction and run at suchv a speed that only a partial reduction takes place cach time the material passes through the pulverizer or disintegrator on its way from the discharge to the feeding end of the drying-machine, and as all material which after leaving the machine that does not pass throughthe screen may be returned to the feed end of the drier again after passing through the pulverizer, all of'the material will eventually be pulverized fine enough to pass through the screen, so that by this process the material is gradually dried and gradually pulverized, although using one pulverizer only.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters' Patent, is-

Vl. The process of drying materials consisting of the following steps: first, passing the l material to be dried through a drying-ehaml ber to dry the same, more or less completely; l second, sifting or screening out thedried portions; third, reducing the larger undried/pori tions to smaller particles, and fourth, mixing l and redryin g said undried particles with raw material substantially as described.

2. A drying-cylinder constructed to dry moist material in combination with means to feed said material to the cylinder, a separator to separate the partially-dried product from the dried material, means for conducting the material from said cylinder tosaid separator', a grannlator for breaking the nndried material into smaller particles, means for conducting said undried material from the separator to the granulator, and -means for carrying said granulated, undried material from the granulator back to said dryingcylinder, substantially as described.

3. In combination with a drying-cylinder, a sifting device to separate out the dried prodvuct, means for carrying the material to said sifter, mechanism for mixing cutting up and dusting a part of the material after it comes from the said sifter, means for carrying the material te said mixing device and means for carrying the material thus treated t0 the drying-cylinder, substantially as described.

4. In combination with a drying-cylinder and means for feeding said cylinder, a screen for sift-ing out the dried material, and a granulator, means for carrying the material from the cylinder to the screen and means for conveying a portion of the dried material from the screen to the granulator, and means for discharging the material from the granulator, substantially as described.

5. In a drier the combination with a cylinder of means to feed said cylinder, a mixinggranulator, a screen intermediate the cylinder and granulator to separate the m ateral,means for discharging into the screen and from the screen to the said granulator, a separate receptacle for raw material, means to convey said raw material from said receptacle to the granulator, and means to carry the mixed material from the granulator to said cylinder, substantially as described.

G. In combination with a drying-cylinder, a screen to separate the material to be dried, a granulator to mix, disintegrate and dust said material, means to feed said cylinder,

IOO

IOS

means to carry the material from said eylinder to the screen, separate means to convey the dried and undried material from the separator to the granulator, and means to regnlate, control, and separate the new of said material to the granulator, substantially as described.

7. In a drier a su pply-tank for wet material in combination with a granulator or pulverizer made in two sections, means for delivering the material from the said tank to one of said sections, a drying-cylinder, .means for carrying the material from said granulator to said cylinder, a separating-screen intermediate said cylinder and granulator, means to convey the material from the cylinder to the screen, means to convey the material from the screen to the granulator-sections, and means for discharging the dried and finished material to any desired point, substantially as described.

S. In a drier of the character described a combined mixer disintegrator and duster composed of two communicating sections, one of said sections provided with a rotating shaft armed with blades for mixing and disintegrating material fed thereto, the other section pro- IIO vided wil h arol-atingshaft armed with cutters and a spi ral blade, in combination withmeans teaellnate said shafts, means to admit nndried material te said lil-st section and meansfor admitting dried material te said second section, receptacles for said dried and undred materials, and means for conveying;` to and means for discharging sa-d materials from said receptacles into said grannlater, whereby xo the two materialsare mixed and disintegrated, *l

Signed by me, at Cleveland, Ohio, this 10th I5 -day of March, .1598.

FRANKLIN DAVID CUMMER; vWitnesses:

Il. T. Frsmcn, Il. E. MUDRA. 

